Funeral Pie & Brunswick Stew

     In her book, Death Warmed Over, author Lisa Rogak credits the Amish with the creation of Funeral Pie.  But having put my feet under the table of the Schwenkfelders for a quarter of a century I can say with certainty that Rosina Pie, as it is sometimes called in the Pennsylvania Deutch dialect, is known to a wider community than just our Amish brethren.  Many, if not all of the Pennsylvania German households are very familiar with the term for a baked good brought to a grieving friend or relative at the death of a loved one.  The main ingredient in the pie is raisins, due to their year round availability, unlike blueberries, peaches or apples.  That coupled with no need of refrigeration made the funeral pie something that could be baked a day or two before the wake.  It also had the additional feature of being very sweet to assuage the grief of sorrow at the passing of someone dear.
     N.B.  Be sure to click on the link to funeral pie above for a more complete description and for the recipe.  And note as well that the link also has a link that will explain the origins of funeral pie even more thoroughly.

     Now on to last night's meal, Brunswick Stew.  There are a variety of differing recipes for this meal, although most of them rely on lima beans and corn and a combination of pork and chicken.  But having said that I also have a recipe in my collection that calls for "10 squirrels, dressed and disjointed."  I can't say I've ever cooked squirrel but I do have friends from south of the Mason-Dixon line that say it is quite tasty if cooked properly.  But then again I guess you could say the same for armadillo and lizard, too.  I chose as my resource a recipe found in Cook's Country magazine.  They are the same folks who publish Cook's Illustrated and their instructions are very similar.  The emphasis is always on quality and making a recipe work, even if it involves about a dozen extra steps.  So I went to work and browned the pork chops, sauteed the onions and heated up the tomato sauce before adding them all to my slow cooker.  Then as recommended I cubed the potatoes and placed them in a foil packet with the chicken on top of them.  That was the last item to go into the slow cooker before it simmered all day on low.  The final instructions told me to remove the packet, turn the slow cooker on high and after unwrapping the packet return the potatoes to the mix.  Then when the meats had cooled I cut up the pork and the chicken and added them to the mix for a final heating.
     The final result?  I enjoyed the flavor of the veggies and the seasoned meats, but the potatoes still weren't quite cooked to my liking.  Perhaps next time I will around I will cook at a higher temperature for a shorter amount of time.

Singing the Blues

     My travels last Friday took me down to the University City section of Philly to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.  Before I left I went on line to look for restaurants that would be within walking distance and found one only 2 blocks away at 34th and Sansom Streets.  Baby Blues BBQ has been in existence for less than two years but looked inviting so I went in for dinner.

     I was seated near the front door and after ordering I decided to get up and look around to see the rest of the place.  I asked John, the manager, if he minded that while I wandered around I took some pictures so I could put them on my cooking blog.  He didn't mind at all and then proceeded to give me a personal tour of every nook and cranny of the restaurant including the secret room downstairs behind the swivel bookcase.

     When my meal arrived (I ordered the "Mason-Dixon") I began to chow down on the chicken and ribs and two sides when John brought over another plate of samples of their other stand-out side dishes.  He wanted me to try them as well.  Then during the meal the owners stopped by my table to ask how my dinner was going, and Steve offered me a bowl of their signature mashed sweet potatoes.

     I guess the word was out that Vinny was in town!  The food was fantastic and I could barely finish it all.  In fact, I had to bring some of the ribs home with me.  So as I was about to settle up for the meal Steve came by once again and said I wasn't finished yet and the waitress brought a banana creme dessert to my table.  It was so good!  I had to waddle back along 34th Street to get my car and drive home. 

 Here's a picture of Vinny with John and Steve:

     So the next time you're in West Philly, make a point to stop by Baby Blues BBQ if you want an authentic Memphis meal.  It's worth the trip!!!

Read any good books lately?

 
      Here is my kitchen library.  As you can see I have quite a collection of books dealing with the culinary arts.  Some are classified by topic: pasta, chicken, crab, sauce, fish & shellfish, bread, and soup.  Others are according to location:  New England, Santa Fe, Italy, Tuscany, France, Provence, & America.  But perhaps my favorite book in the collection is one entitled "Death Warmed Over."  It is a collection of 75 recipes typically served at funeral ceremonies around the world and describes rituals and traditions associated with various cultures, from the Amish to Zoroastrianism.  It begins with this account:
    
     An elderly man was at home, dying in bed.  He smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookies baking.  He wanted one last cookie before he died.
     He fell out of bed, crawled to the landing, rolled down the stairs, and dragged himself into the kitchen, where his wife was busy baking cookies.  With his strength waining, he made it to the table and was just barely able to lift his withered arm to the cookie rack.
     As he grasped a warm, moist chocolate chip cookie, his wife suddenly whacked his hand with a spatula.
     "Why?" he whispered.  "Why did you do that?"
     "They're for the funeral!"
    
So from time to time I will be providing snippets of information from this interesting collection of stories relating to funerals and food.  So for now I leave you with a question, 

What is the main ingredient in Funeral Pie?

    

Weekly Menu Planner

     Looking on the calendar here at home it appears that the coming week will be a busy one with places to go and people to see.  So I've planned a week of one pot meals that will be quick to prepare and easy to clean up.  Everything will cook together at the same time and provide levels of flavor to enjoy.  Here's what I have in mind:

WEEKLY MENU PLANNER

Sunday

Cincinnati Chili Reprise

Roasted Green Beans

Monday

Brunswick Stew

Tuesday

Greek Spiced Shrimp

Wednesday

Miner’s Spiced Kettle of Beef

Thursday

Whateversleft

Chili Today...

     I believe almost every culture has a variation of chili.  As I perused my 3 ring binder of recipes under the Chili tab I found several that are my favorites.  There is white chili made from cubed chicken breasts and cannelloni beans, sausage chili with spicy andouille and porter beer as a base, Texas chili that calls for chunks of beef chuck and omits any inclusion of beans at all, and turkey chili with diced cooked turkey mixed with chopped red onions & celery and corn.  Chili recipes are like those for beef stew and potato salad in that everyone has their own favorite and they vary from region to region and from family to family.
     Yesterday was a damp and dreary day here.  So I thought it was a perfect day to make up a batch of chili for dinner.  But this time I reached for a recipe passed along by a friend and culinary master, Bill Berardelli.  His chili recipe is a regional one as well, from Cincinnati.  Little did I know that this Ohio town had such an eager cult following for their own version of such an All-American meal.  Cincinnati Chili is distinct in that it incorporates chocolate into the list of usual ingredients.  As you will nota bene in the recipe, shaved chocolate or cocoa powder is called for.
     But as I searched through my pantry and spice cabinet I came up empty.  I had no cocoa powder and only some very outdated baker's chocolate hiding in the deli drawer of the 'frig.  But then with a stroke of genius I recalled a Christmas gift I received from Rudi - a chili flavor chocolate bar!  I'd been nibbling at it and knew it deftly combined sweet and hot so it would be the perfect substitution for the only ingredient I lacked.  I happily broke off a few slivers and added it to the mix so I could concoct a unique style of chili.
     Oh yes, and there's one more thing that makes Cincinnati Chili unique.  It's traditionally served over spaghetti.  Here's my plate at serving time:

Nota Bene

     Have you ever been reading in a textbook or instructional manual and come across somewhere on the page, either in the margins or at the bottom, the letters N.B. and wondered what it meant?  It's an abbreviation for Nota Bene meaning "note well" or "pay attention."  It's a Latin term that's also found in legal papers.  It alerts the reader concerning an additional aspect or detail regarding the subject at hand.  The reason I bring this up today is in relation to my daily musings that you read here.
     N.B. Certain words or terms that appear in highlighted colors are actually links to further explain the topic or provide a recipe.
     Go ahead!  Try it.  Take your cursor up to "Nota Bene" above and click on it.  It will direct you to the Wikipedia definition of the term.  Yesterday's post had a highlighted section "coq au vin" and clicking on that gave you the recipe for my infamous french meal in Provence.  There was also a link connected to the name of the farmer's market "The Green Dragon" in an earlier post.
     No doubt many of you tech savvy individuals already knew about the automatic linking process.  But there may be a few of you who have not learned all the nuances of the computer keyboard and it's ability to transport you immediately to practically anywhere. 
     So now when you come across a highlighted word or term in any subsequent post of mine you can take a moment and click on it to further pursue the subject.  It's just that easy!

Parlez-vous?

     I've never been accused of being a French language scholar.  In fact, I took 2 years of French...twice-one time in high school and then again in college.  About the only thing I can still recite in French is The Lord's Prayer and the French National Anthem, La Marseillaise.  So you can begin to imagine my misadventures on our vacation in Provence.  I knew just enough of the language to be misunderstood.
     The villa we rented was magnificent, a spacious retreat for the 5 couples who made the trip.  And I was privileged to be the Chef de la Maison in a modern and well equipped kitchen.

     With several cookbooks at the ready I polled the crowd as to their culinary preferences for our evening communal meals.  It was no surprise that at the top of the list was Coq au Vin, literally "rooster in wine."  So on one of our designated market days I went in search for a boucherie, a butcher shop, to procure the main ingredient for dinner that day.  I found a small shop just to the side of a large open air market and confidently walked in to look over what I expected would be cuts of poultry.  To my surprise and chagrin I found not the aggregate parts of a chicken but the entire bird itself.  Reluctantly I ordered up 3 and asked that they be wrapped up for the trip back to our villa.  As the transaction was being consummated the clerk asked me a question in French that I did not quite understand.  She said, "Coupe la tete?"  Since I wasn't sure what was being spoken to me I responded with my best French accent, "Non!"
     It wasn't until I was back at the villa that I understood her words.  When I unwrapped the birds here is what I found:

     Yes, it was the whole bird, including the head and feet!  It was then that I realized that the clerk had asked me if I wanted the butcher to cut off the heads of the chickens.  I had never encountered such a compete package before and it took a lot of work to "dress" the chickens for the pot.  In fact, I had to enlist the aid of a medical professional traveling along with us to eviscerate and decapitate the birds.  This was a little bit too up close and personal for me, a decidedly amateur chef.
     But the story had a happy ending as the final result was an authentic French meal that everyone at the table savored.  And there was quite a story to tell around that table about it's preparation, n'est pas?

Market Day

     Tuesday is market day for me.  It used to be that way because that was my day off.  Now it is that way because senior citizens get a 5% discount on purchases.  It's part of my routine now and I'm out and back home again by 9 am to unpack and put everything away for another week.
     Some years ago we had the opportunity to vacation in the Provence region of France and noticed that each little town had their own market day on a different day of the week.  So we would go and see what the vendors had to offer.  There were lots of fresh produce and meats but there was a lot more, too, including artwork, jewelry, books and housewares.  Then paying a little more attention to the vendors themselves we noticed that they also traveled from town to town each day to hawk their wares.  It was a great way to become acculturated to a different country and people.

But in reality that really isn't much different from what we experience here in America.  There are certain designated sale days for markets here, too.  There is an indoor produce stand I recently learned about just outside Collegeville.  Jim & Ralph's only operates on Thursday through Sunday and is a cash and carry business.  Fresh produce is displayed and when your number is called a runner retrieves your order as you shout it out.  Prices are great and the selection varies from week to week.

But my favorite market day is Friday.  That is when the Green Dragon is in business in Ephrata.  It is an amazing amalgamation of indoor and outdoor vendors offering everything from breakfast to produce to meats and poultry, to furniture, shoo-fly pies, sticky buns, boots and linens.  It is open every Friday all year long.  Want a fried oyster sandwich for lunch?  You can get it there.  Need some dried fruit or honey roasted peanuts?  Just down that aisle over there.  It's only about an hour's drive west from where I live and an easy drive out the turnpike.  I often go with a buddy and we have breakfast at a little sit down diner inside then go around to compare prices on things like bananas and lemons and lettuce before we make our final purchases.  And that hard to find gadget that no one else seems to carry can probably be found in the hardware or dry goods store.  You can also get a genuine leather belt custom cut on the spot or get a replacement piece of Tupperware, too.

     It takes me at least two days a week to complete all my marketing, but that's because Tuesdays and Fridays are special days to "go to Market."

Play it again, Sam

     Cooking for just two people has it's challenges.  I'm always doing the math in my head as I attempt to cut the recipe in half or in quarters to reduce the size of the portions designed for a crowd.  But sometimes I prepare more than enough for the two of us.  You know, the meals that always taste better the second time around, like beef stew, chili and meatloaf.  I have even made chili a day ahead of time just to let it steep and have the flavors mellow and intensify to enjoy the following day.
     But there are other recipes that I follow with the intention of using the left overs in a totally different way, not just a remake of the first meal.  Such was the case last night with the stuffed chicken breasts.  After the meal I cut off the remaining chicken from the bones and diced it up for a chicken salad that will make a healthy lunch for the next few days.  Similarly, cuts of meat like London broil and ham can be reincarnated into a salad, as can cooked shrimp and salmon.  And a pork roast is wonderful the next day as a pulled pork open faced sandwich with some barbeque sauce.  Likewise left over couscous can be a hearty base for a warming winter soup.  Vegetables can also be saved and frozen to add to beef or chicken broth to warm both body and soul in a flavorful soup.
     Here is a recipe from my collection that finds a use for left over mashed potatoes:

MASHED POTATO CROQUETTES

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes                                salt and freshly ground pepper

2 Tbsp grated Parmesan                                              1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup cooked & crumbled bacon                            1/2  cup seasoned bread crumbs

2 Tbsp chopped parsley                                               1/2 cup panko

2 eggs                                                                               Canola oil, for frying

1/2 cup all purpose flour + 2 Tbsp

     Combine mashed potatoes, Parmesan, bacon, 1 Tbsp parsley, 1 egg, 2 Tbsp flour & salt and pepper.  Using a small ice cream scoop form the mixture into balls then flatten slightly.

     In a pie plate combine the other egg with the milk.  Set up a breading station with one plate of flour, then the egg mixture, then the bread crumbs and panko.  Place croquettes in the flour, dip in the egg, then roll in breadcrumbs.

     Heat canola oil to 360F and fry for about 4 minutes until browned on all sides.  You can shallow fry them in a pan with about 1" of oil and flip them.  Remove, place on a paper towel lined plate and season to taste.

Weekly Menu Planner

     The weather for the coming week looks like it will provide us with a veritable climactic smorgasbord.  We have just had snow and ice followed by bone chilling cold.  Then things look like they will warm up decidedly and rain is in the forecast with milder days of sunshine and clouds.  So I have planned for a fairly basic menu for the next week.  Here's what I will be preparing:

WEEKLY MENU PLANNER

Saturday

Broiled Salmon with Gravlax Sauce

Couscous with Toasted Pine Nuts

Roasted Maple Mustard Green Beans

Sunday

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Mac n’ Cheese

Peas & Pearl Onions

Monday

Hickory Smoked Pork Chops

Sauteed Pierogies & Onions

Steamed Broccoli

 Tuesday

Salisbury Steak

Mashed Potatoes

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Brown Gravy

 Wednesday

Sausage & Escarole Soup

Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwich

 Thursday

Turkey Chili

Cornbread

Snow Day

     It's snowing here this morning.  As far as winter storms go this one is unremarkable, barely more than a nuisance.  The older I get the less I enjoy the snow.  It means having to get bundled up and clear the porches and walkways and then fire up the snow blower to open up the driveway, only to have it covered again at the road by the plow trains that go by every hour.
     But the snow also provides an opportunity to spend some time inside at the stove cooking up some warming and inviting soups.  Today is a prime example of that process.  Knowing that snow was in the forecast yesterday I checked my pantry to make sure I had all the necessary ingredients.  I also paged through a couple of my soup cook books to compile a list of potential candidates for the soup pot.  But it was not from those cook books that I found the recipe I eventually chose.  It was from an old yellowed page that my mother had torn out of the January 1981 issue of Woman's Day.  There was only one item that I did not have and a quick trip to the market provided me with a head of escarole, essential for the Escarole Sausage Soup that I planned to make.
     So as the snow flakes were falling outside I was peeling and dicing and laying out all the ingredients necessary:  Italian sausage, chopped onion, minced garlic, chopped celery, diced potatoes and of course, torn escarole leaves.  Fresh tomatoes aren't really very flavorful this time of year so I used a can of Low Sodium diced tomatoes from my pantry.  The cooking liquid was a combination of Low Sodium chicken stock and water to which I added some spices: oregano, basil and parsley.

     It's simmering now on the stove and the aroma that fills the house it wonderful!  So I will make quick work of shoveling so I can get back in the house to have a bowl of warming soup for lunch!

As Good as They Get

     Potatoes are prepared in a variety of ways.  They can be boiled, roasted, sauteed and fried.  But frenched fried potatoes are as good as they get.  Here is the way to prepare them at home:

Freedom Fries

     Cut russet potatoes into lengths about 1/4"x 1/4"x3" with a mandolin.  Place in a large nonreactive bowl, cover with water and set aside in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

     Pour oil into a heavy bottomed pot to a depth of 4" and heat over medium heat.  Drain potatoes, then dry very thoroughly with paper towels.  When oil reaches 325F cook potatoes without browning, in small batches, turning occasionally, until they are tender and their edges are slightly crisp, about 4 minutes.  Drain potatoes on paper towels and allow to cool for about 20 minutes.

     Reheat oil.  When temperature reaches 375F fry potatoes until crisp and golden, 1-2 minutes.  Drain on paper towels, sprinkle with salt and serve.

Viva la France!

     France has contributed much to the culinary world.  Consider such things as coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon, salad nicoise, bouillabaisse, bechamel sauce, cheeses like Camembert and Roquefort, wines like burgundy and sauternes, and the most regal of them all Champagne.

     But french fries?  Mais non!  They are only called that in America.  Parisians refer to them as pommes frites, fried potatoes.  So why are there two different appellations for the same food?  Well, technically we should be calling them "frenched fries" because the potatoes are cut into uniform sticks, or are "frenched."  Doing so results in more even frying giving them a consistent golden color and crunch.

     Potatoes aren't the only thing that can be frenched.  We do the same thing in the preparation of haricots verts - French cut green beans.  Similarly a rack of lamb and a standing rib roast can also be frenched.  The meat is trimmed uniformly exposing the ribs which are then all cut to the same length.

     So enjoy all the wonderful foods inspired by French chefs over the centuries.  But when you order a Happy Meal at McDonald's don't call them French fries!



That's Pretty Low

     For Tuesday's evening meal I focused my attention back to this side of the Atlantic and did some Low Country Cooking.  I attempted to prepare some traditional Carolina food, beginning first with some breaded pork chops.  Some recipes prefer to call them smothered and pan fry the chops with gravy and diced potatoes.  Instead of going that route I breaded them in a mixture of grated Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, corn meal and some paprika.  Then I baked them in the oven.
     But the Low Country main event was the Hoppin' John that I cooked as a side dish for the meal.  It is traditionally the feast served on New Year's Day to bring luck for the coming year, the Southern equivalent of the Pennsylvania Dutch New Year's Day good luck meal of pork and sauerkraut.  Here's the recipe for Hoppin John:

1 1/2 cups of dried black eyed peas
6 strips of bacon, or diced ham
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups cooked rice
salt & pepper to taste
dash of hot sauce
1/2 cup minded green onions, including tops

Rinse peas and pick them over.  Cover with cold water; add 1 Tbsp salt and let stand overnight.  Drain peas, discarding water, and place in a 6-8 quart stock pot.  In a cast iron skillet, saute bacon until crisp; add it to peas, reserving the drippings.  Add onion, a little salt and 2 cups of water.  Bring just to a boil, lower heat, and simmer until peas are tender, about 20 minutes.  A small amount of the cooking liquid should remain; if liquid is absorbed too quickly, add fresh water by 1/4 cups.  When peas are tender, add cooked rice to pot.  Stir in 2 Tbsp of the reserved bacon drippings, salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste.  Cover and simmer about 15 minutes longer so flavors combine and rice absorbed some of the remaining cooking liquid.   Makes 6-7 servings

     There are lots of great Low Country meals you can try.  Some of my favorites include: Frogmore Stew, St. Simon's Island Shrimp Bog, and Seafood Muddle.  You can find these and other recipes that feature Low Country Cooking by checking this website:  Chef Rick's Southern Cooking. 
  And do you know the female counterpart to Hoppin' John?  Well, of course it's Limpin' Susan!  Ask Chef Rick how to cook that one up.

Something's Fishy

     I'm sure all of you correctly identified the cuisine I imitated last night.  It was of course from the United Kingdom.  Fish and chips are practically a national treasure there.  One of the best meals I enjoyed while across the pond was in a "Chippy Shop" as Rita refers to them.  It was in a small local restaurant on a back street in Edinburgh.  The North Sea cod was flaky on the inside and golden crisp on the outside and a delight to consume.
     But it is something else again to attempt to replicate that same goodness in a kitchen with no deep fat fryer.  I know, I have tried unsuccessfully several times.  It is impossible to maintain the proper temperature of the cooking oil once the batter coated fillets are placed in it.  It should remain at a constant 375F.  But unless you are cooking with a large quantity of oil the temperature can drop precipitously nearly 100 degrees.  That makes for a soggy piece of fish, indeed.  So I have abandoned that method and save the UK experience for a trip to an eatery equipped for the challenge.
     But what about last night's meal?  I have to fess up.  I used some frozen cod pieces already breaded and marketed by Omaha Steaks .  Their high volume items are of course their steaks which they advertise in their catalogue at prohibitively high prices.  But every so often their retail stores will offer their products at deeply discounted prices.  Such was the case last week when I got wind of a 50% off sale on every item in their Chestnut Hill store for one day only.  We do not make a habit of eating much red meat but they also carry a line of pork and chicken products, as well as some fish and seafood.  So I thought it was worth a try.
     So what did I think of the prepackaged fish?  Not bad, actually.  Before putting in the oven for 20 minutes I doctored the pieces up a bit with a spritz of olive oil and a dash of smoked paprika.  Reading the ingredients on the box gave me a bit of pause, though, when I came across words I couldn't pronounce, like sodium tripolyphosphate.  One of the reasons I prefer to cook fresh and local is to avoid things like that.  Sodium is prevalent in far too many processed foods and causes health concerns for many Americans, myself included.  And the sodium level in the Nutrition Facts section of the box was higher than I liked, too.  It looks like these fish and chips will be a very occasional meal I prepare.
     In a future post I will discuss our equivalent of the British "chips" and how our term for them "French Fries" is actually a misnomer.

International Intrigue

     Yesterday I posted my weekly menu planner and suggested that readers guess the cuisine I was attempting to replicate each day.  I figured Sunday's meal of London Broil and mashed potatoes would be a slam-dunk for everyone.  It certainly sounds like an English favorite, doesn't it?  But in corresp0nding with my British cousin, Rita, about my meal plans she promptly responded to me, "What's London Broil?"  Whoops!  Guess I had some investigating to do.  So I went on the Internet to Wikipedia and discovered that in the UK it is not the same cut of meat as it is in the US.  In fact, it's not even the same animal.  We enjoy London Broil as a flank steak or top round from beef cattle, while the English version is lamb.  And Canada has yet another derivation of that meal.  So I stand corrected! 
     But my beefy London Broil did have a decidedly English flavor to it.  I marinated it for about 5 hours in the 'frig in some Lancashire sauce that I brought back with me from my heritage tour of England last Fall.  It is a proud counterpart to the more familiar Worcestershire Sauce and is purportedly still made by the descendants of Grandma Entwistle.
     One note also about the mashed potatoes...This week both daughters have asked for my recipe.  It's nothing special, everyone knows how to make mashed (whipped) potatoes.  But a couple simple tricks make them light and creamy rather they gloppy and cloying.  After peeling and cubing the russets place them in cold tap water and let them come up to a boil on the stove and simmer for 13 minutes.  Then drain all the water from the pan and place it back on the stove for a few more minutes to allow any residual water to evaporate.  Put the cubed spuds in a large bowl and begin to break them up using a hand mixer on slow speed.  Slowly add some milk and butter that has been warmed but not boiling, just enough to melt the tablespoon of butter.  Turn the mixer on high to insure that no lumps remain.  At this point additional ingredients can be added if desired, like shredded cheese, crumbled bacon, minced garlic or chopped parsley.
     Have you ever cashed in on a bargain of 5 pounds of potatoes on sale only to discover that half of them have sprouted eyes before you could use them all up?  Here's a solution, according to Dr. Greg Porter of the University of Maine/Orono.  Place a ripe apple in the bag of potatoes to prevent them from sprouting.  He states that "the ethylene gas released from the apple suppresses the elongation of the potato cells, which is what causes the sprouts to form."  Now you know.

Pictured above is my "American" London Broil about to head into the oven, courtesy of Grandma Entwistle's sauce.

This Week in Food

     This week I have planned a menu that highlights different regional/national cuisines.  I enjoy researching the menus of varying cultures.  See if you can determine the cuisine I am imitating each day this week:

Sunday

London Broil

Mashed Potatoes

Steamed Broccoli

Monday

Fish & Chips

Mushy Peas

Tuesday

Breaded Pork Chops

Hoppin' John

Green Beans

Wednesday

Hot Roast Beef & Gravy

Pa. Dutch Egg Noodles

Thursday

Chicken Kiev

Honey Rice

Creamed Corn

Meatloaf Recipe

     I subscribe to Cook's Illustrated magazine. It's not cheap, but it is remarkable in that there are no advertisements at all on any of it's pages.  It is 100% information about the best ways to  prepare food and the best ingredients and equipment.  The format of their articles are fairly predictable.  They lament about the twenty different ways they attempted to make a certain food and how they all failed before telling the reader what finally worked.  So it was with their recipe for Glazed Meatloaf that I mentioned in a previous post.  They went through 400 lbs of ground meat before coming upon a method that pleased the staff.  Here is their recipe:

Glazed Meatloaf

3 oz Monterrey Jack cheese, grated 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin

1 Tbsp unsalted butter 1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 cup onion, finely chopped 1 tsp Dijon Mustard

1/2 cup celery rib chopped 2 eggs

1 tsp minced garlic 2/3 cup crushed Saltines

2 tsp thyme 2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

1 tsp paprika 3/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup tomato juice 1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup LS chicken broth 2 lb meatloaf mix

     Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 F.  Spread cheese on plate and place in freezer until ready for use.  Prepare cooling rack with perforated aluminum foil and put on foiled lined baking sheet.

     Heat butter in a skillet over medium-high heat until foaming; add onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes.  Add garlic, thyme and paprika and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Reduce heat to low and add tomato juice.  Cook, stirring to scrape up browned bits from pan, until thickened, about 1 minute.  Transfer mixture to small bowl and set aside to cool.

     Whisk broth and eggs in a large bowl until combined. Sprinkle gelatin over liquid and let stand 5 minutes.  Stir in soy sauce, mustard, saltines, parsley, salt, and pepper, and onion mixture. Remove cheese from freezer and crumble and add to bowl.  Add ground meat, mix gently with hands until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Transfer meat to perforated foil and shape into an oval about 2" high.  Smooth top and edges with moistened spatula.  Bake until an instant read thermometer reads 135-140 F, 45-50 minutes.  Remove meatloaf from oven and turn on broiler.

     While meatloaf cooks combine ingredients for glaze in a small sauce pan (see below).  Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring, until thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes. Spread evenly over meatloaf; place under broiler and cook until glaze bubbles.  Remove meat from oven and repeat spreading remainder of glaze; place back in the broiler until glaze is once again bubbling and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes more.  Permit meatloaf to cool slightly before slicing.

Glaze

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tsp hot pepper sauce

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

3 Tbsp packed light brown sugar

N.B.  I cut this entire recipe by half to make a nice sized meatloaf for the two of us, with enough for leftovers!!! 

Don't let your meatloaf

          Remember how your mother cooked meatloaf?  She combined ground beef, bread crumbs and an egg and then forced it into a Pyrex glass bread pan and put it in the oven for an hour.  It didn't bake but boiled in the fat that had separated out from the meat.  How unhealthy!  But back then we didn't know any better.
          But last night's dinner was cooked in a vastly different way.  The ingredients were the same: sauteed onion and celery, crushed crackers, chicken broth, an egg, and ground meat.  But the cooking method had a new twist.  To drain the fat from the loaf I prepared a doubled piece of heavy duty aluminum foil over a cooling rack and perforated it with a skewer before placing it on a baking sheet.  Then I molded the loaf into a low oval and put it in the oven to cook at 375F for 45 minutes.  To finish off the meatloaf I gave it a glaze of ketchup and brown sugar and turned on the broiler for 5 minutes.
          The result was a fat free meatloaf that tasted like it was supposed to.  Wouldn't Mom be proud!!!

On the Cutting Edge

     I mentioned previously the advantage of having sharpened cutlery at the beginning of the new year.  Heading to the Internet I investigated the ways to accomplish that and discovered numerous methods for honing knives at home.  But they all assumed that I knew what I was doing.  I, however, do not.  And they were all expensive, carrying a price tag of over $150 for a sharpening devise .  So I continued to investigate the subject and came across two businesses that provided sharpening services.  One was in nearby Pennsburg, in northern Montgomery County.
     So equipped with the address and phone number and a box of dull knives I headed north to find 2260 E. Buck Road.  That sounded easy enough, however I soon discovered that East Buck Road does not intersect with Main Street as I supposed.  Instead it only appears about a mile out of town from Eighth Street.  Having overcome that diversion I was now looking for the street number only to find that there is no 2260 on East Buck Road.  I went up and down the street twice and finally decided to give a call to the number I had carried with me.  The voice on the phone acknowledged that I was on the correct road and very near his location.   In fact it was in what appeared to be an abandoned barn just behind me.  I turned around and pulled into the small parking area, trying to find an entry way.
     There was one small indistinguishable door that led into the establishment.  I cautiously opened it and found myself in a room filled with shelving containing innumerable trays of cutlery.  It was the kind of place where you needed a secret handshake to enter.  I was greeted by the man on the phone, the grandson of the founder, who looked over my knives and promptly called to one of the ten men in an adjacent windowless room to sharpen them.  In only a few moments they were returned to me with a keen edge.  The charge: $20.  A small price to pay for such a professional service.
     I returned home delighted with a set of knives that can perform the job they were intended to do.  I just hope I can remember how to get there next January.

Cook for the cure

          Practically every family has a list of home cures for common ailments.  We all know about the curative powers of chicken soup.  It really does work!  That's why it's known to many as Jewish Penicillin. It works wonders for those feeling under the weather.  My mother also had a home cure for colds and the flu.  It was a simple prescription of 1 cup hot water, the juice of 1 lemon, 1 spoonful of honey, and 1 shot of whiskey.  Sipping that worked wonders.
           Homeopathic medicine has been around for thousands of years.  People around the globe swear by it.  From green tea for hypertension to cinnamon for weight loss and St. John's wort for depression people have looked to the kitchen shelves for cures for whatever ails them.
          Rudi was kind enough to share with me the cold she brought home over the Christmas holiday and I've been languishing with chest congestion and coughing and sneezing for about a week now.  So I thought I would create a cure from elements I had on hand.  So yesterday I adapted a recipe for a spicy shrimp broth to see if it would send me on the road to recovery.  I simmered some shrimp shells to make a seafood stock and then added some sauteed onions, carrots and celery along with some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and diced tomatoes.  It cooked on the stove for an hour and a half, covered, before being removed and adding the shrimp.
          I sampled just a spoonful of the broth as it cooked.  It was really spicy!  But it did clear my stuffy nose.  So at dinner I ladled out a whole bowl and warmed it up in the microwave.  Just as a precaution I stirred in a large helping of sour cream, hoping to cut the heat.  I had tears in my eyes as I downed the soup, one spoonful at a time.  It bordered on being intolerable but it worked to reduce my symptoms.  It cleared out my sinuses (and everything else along it's path).
          So today I'm feeling better thanks to my homemade cure.  They say whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  That shrimp broth almost did me in, but it also reduced my cold to a whimper.

Spare no expense!

     Last night I made rice pilaf to accompany the slices of roast pork I served with a cranberry sauce.  The recipe came from the Food Network website and was provided by Alton Brown (Good Eats).  If you are familiar with his show, he goes into great detail and cooks with the accuracy and precision of a molecular biologist.  So I wasn't surprised to find some unsuspecting ingredients in his recipe, like orange zest, bay leaves and a pinch of saffron.  Wow!  Saffron!  It's the world's most expensive spice.  It is actually the dried stigma of the crocus plant and it imparts a unique flavor and color to food, namely rice and paella.  It takes about 70,000 crocus flowers to produce 5 pounds of stigmas and in turn then dry down to about 1 pound of saffron.  And because of the delicate nature of the crocus flower the stigmas are still harvested and separated from the other flower parts by hand.  It requires nearly 200 hours of labor for each pound of saffron to reach the market.
     No wonder it's so expensive!  At my favorite spice store, Penzey's, a mere cup of the Kashmir Indian saffron commands a king's ransom of $120.  I was fortunate to have some on hand thanks to the generous gift from a friend who brought some back from a vacation in Greece.  But it had remained in my spice cabinet for over 6 months as I pondered how and when to use this precious commodity.  Now was the opportunity to open this little treasure chest of tiny red stems and add them to my recipe.  It took some time to open the small air tight plastic container and it was only accomplished with help.  So I then followed the directions on the recipe and placed a pinch of the threads into a quarter cup of hot, but not boiling, water so they could steep and thus impart their characteristic golden hue and hay like aroma.  Then the brew was carefully poured into the rice mixture to bake in the oven for 15 minutes before setting on top of the stove for an equal amount of time prior to serving in a warmed bowl.

         So how did my expensive rice pilaf turn out?  It was yellow from the saffron, to be sure.  But did it add any flavor to the dish?  The jury is still out on that one.  Perhaps I will be better able to determine that when I serve up the pilaf later in the week as a base for some Szechuan shrimp.

Something to stew about

     There are probably as many recipes for beef stew as there are Kriebels in the local phone directory.  Some call for lots of veggies, others only onions while others require a braising liquid of Guinness or red wine, or basic stock.  Whatever the case one basic element remains the same, that being the beef.  Last night's beef stew was wonderful with a savory, creamy broth that caressed the potatoes, carrots and green beans.  But it was the beef that was the star of the show that gave everything else it's rich flavor.
     One error that most people make when shopping for the beef is to look on the butcher's counter and pick up something labeled "stew beef."  Sure, it looks convenient enough, already cubed and ready for the pot.  But is it really stew beef or just some left over cut of meat that has been cubed and wrapped for the unsuspecting customer?  It may look good enough with no trace of fat but it is, in fact, the marbling of fat that gives beef stew it's characteristic rich quality.  Savvy shoppers know to purchase a whole chuck roast with a moderate amount of fat (preferably when it is on sale) and then at home cut it up into 1 lb portions to be wrapped and frozen until needed.  It can then be cut into cubes just before it thaws.  Chuck roasts provide the most flavor for beef stew and is the best cut of meat to be used for the low and slow cooking process.  The nameless cubes of mystery meat can actually end up being tasteless and dry and ruin a good hearty winter stew.  So save yourself some frustration (and money) and look for chuck roast the next time you decide to please your family with a satisfying winter delight.
     One additional note:  Last night's cornbread was a great compliment to the meal.  It's easy to whip up and in a cast iron mold, like the one I received for Christmas, makes the corn bread look like what it actually is, don't you agree?